


The Power to Protect

by Dysphorite



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: F/M, Immortality, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Magic, Protection, Rings, Sacrifice, Short One Shot, Spoilers, Underworld, theory
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-08
Updated: 2015-11-08
Packaged: 2018-04-30 16:09:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 531
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5170097
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dysphorite/pseuds/Dysphorite
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>He gave her the ring that saved him time and time again.<br/>In time, it saved her.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Power to Protect

**Author's Note:**

> So, I kind of just now blurted this story out as it came to me. I just want to say I’M SORRY in advance because it hurts but the idea came to me when I was watching the 5x07 sneak peek where Killian gives Emma this ring. I thought of what’s been theorised by some of you guys about Killian’s dad and all of this underworld deal and it kind of made sense to me? So, yeah, hope you guys enjoy! I also apologise for the bad writing, it was kind of on the spot, so, grant me mercy, please!

 

_Keep that ring, son, and you will forever be safe._

He didn’t understand his father’s words then. A week after they passed his lips, he disappeared. Leaving him, his mother and Liam alone to fend for themselves. And after that, he only felt resentment for his father. All he knew is that his actions turned him into what he was today, a survivor. Somehow, he had endured everything that fate had cast upon him. His mother’s death, then his brother’s at his king’s betrayal, the death of Milah and the pursuit of revenge on The Dark One for taking him from her. All through the darkness of those long years. And then light, Emma. It was, in some ways, thanks to his father that he finally found his way into Emma’s heart. If he weren’t a survivor, Killian wasn’t sure that she would have let him in. She had been hurt times over before, he could see that, and now he watched as that turned from what made her who she is to what fuelled that corrupt power of The Dark One in her. And what could he do to change it? He couldn’t challenge the voice inside her head. He gave her his love, that’s all he could do, he loved her, cherished her, protected her as much as he could, as far as she would allow and it brought them closer, despite everything. He gave her his ring, his protector, he gave her his protection. So that she may survive any harm that could come to her. _Her._ He gave that ring to Emma Swan, not the The Dark One. So that his Swan would survive. And it came to pass that she did.

Emma Swan lived, thanks to his ring.

But, without it, he didn’t. The magic caught up in that ring, given to him by his father, had protected him for years, allowed him to survive just as it allowed Emma to survive through that all-powerful darkness. The magic imbued into it by his immortal father protected the wearer. From the moment he took it off, he wasn’t protected. And he learnt all of this too late. How his father had never wanted to leave, but he was immortal, he had a duty, a purpose to fulfill that snatched him from them, but he was able to give Killian his ring, the ring that had the power to protect. The ring that Killian gave to Emma. A ring with divine power. A ring that protected her to the last, from that which would have burnt away any life left in her, in anyone, not matter now powerful. But, it didn’t protect Killian, for he wasn’t wearing it. He sacrificed himself for Emma. For Emma to survive. And now he was no longer in the world of the living, learning how this all came to pass. He now understood the weight of his father’s words, the weight of that ring. Just as Emma will come learn it as it hung around her slender neck. The weight of that power to protect. Protect or sacrifice. All Killian can do now is hope that she doesn’t learn it too late.


End file.
